Drawing 16, 19.3 X
27.3 cm.
A man, returning
from China, reflects on the differences between
two ways of life, by Hokusai.
Published in Bei
bei kyôdan (A rustic tale of two heirs), vol. 1, pp. 3B – 4A, in 1815.
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Changes from
drawing to print:
- Since there was
more text added to the print than usual, and not enough available space, the
two right-hand panels of the screen needed to be reduced in size to
accommodate. Surprisingly, this important change in the proportions does not
create a visible imbalance in the print.
- The woman
dressed in Chinese clothes has been slightly moved to the left and her child
moved very slightly lower. The woman dressed in the Japanese clothes has
been moved several millimetres to the right, pulling with her her child and
the flowering branch, necessitating an increase in the size of the vase on
the floor, to fill the space left between the vase and the child.
- The mouldings
surrounding the screen.
- The cartouches
of text and the names of the figures.
Above left: the book plate.
(Right of publication: The National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden,
NL)
Below left: the drawing is superimposed over the
book plate so as
to allow us to see precisely
how the work has evolved and
changed.
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Artist's shorthand:
- The decoration
on the screen is shown, sometimes very briefly, on one of two sheets.
- The bouquet the
man is offering to the Japanese woman: only the volume and a small part of
the detail are indicated.
- On the clothes,
as usual. In particular: the border and the pattern at the bottom of the
man’s coat have been drawn, one on each side of the coat in a position where
they are the most visible.
In this drawing the
hair is shown in black, and some other flat black areas are in fact dark grey.
No doubt because this drawing is unusually well finished for one at this stage.